CHAPTER XXI—THE TERROR OF THE AIR
“Perhaps you’d better be getting the guns loose, Andy,” suggested Frank, in his quiet way.
“You bet I will, and only too glad of the chance; but can you hold yours while you steer; or shall I fix it, so you can grab it up the very second you land the biplane on the sand?” Andy asked, as he let the glasses hang by their strap, and with hands that doubtless trembled more than a little, he proceeded to unfasten the two repeating Marlins with which so much execution had been done on the occasion of the grizzly bear hunt.
“Better lay it in the crotch you made for me, where I can get it in a hurry when my hands are free,” the pilot explained.
By the time all this had been done they were of course much closer to the scene of the expected trouble. And when Andy again picked up the glasses, and clapped them to his eyes, he uttered new exclamations that indicated excitement.
“It’s coming, Frank!” he exclaimed.
“You mean the attack, Andy?”
“Yes, because now Jose seems to have become suddenly suspicious. There, I can see him jump off his pony, and he’s doing something with Becky. As sure as anything, Frank, I do believe he’s cutting the strap that’s held the child to the saddle. That looks like he expects trouble, don’t it?”
“I should say yes,” replied Frank, shortly.
“Hark! did you hear that?” suddenly demanded Andy.
“I thought I caught a faint sound like a shot,” replied the other.
“That was just what it was, Frank. I saw the smoke long before we got the crack of the gun.”
“Who fired?” demanded Frank.
“One of those concealed Indians; and there goes another, and yet a third shot! Oh! Frank what if they should hit poor little Becky, the half-drunken scamps, trying to believe these are the good old days when they chased white men across the plains. Just listen to the shots would you, Frank?”
Andy was fairly quivering with the nervous tension. What made it doubly hard was the fact that while he could see these exciting things so easily through the powerful lens of the glasses, yet they were still far away from the scene of action and unable to raise a hand as yet to render any assistance, should such be needed.
“What is Jose doing now?” asked Frank.
“Oh! one of the ponies seems to be down, and for the life of me I can’t tell you whether it was shot, or has laid down like some of those cow ponies are taught to do, Frank. There goes the other one the same way. And now Jose has pulled the little girl down with him. They’re out of sight behind the bodies of the ponies, I do believe, Frank!”
“Bully for Jose, then; he sure knows how to stand the Indians off!” exclaimed Frank; and for the time being Andy seemed to forget that just a minute or two back he had been declaring that the same Jose deserved the worst punishment the cow-punchers from the Double X Ranch could deal out to him, for he almost echoed the words of his chum.
“Good! good! he’s opened fire, too, for I can see the puff of smoke each time he pulls trigger. Oh! Frank!”
“Well, what now?” demanded the other, a little impatiently, as Andy paused after giving that last exclamation that might stand for almost anything.
“He hit one of the Indians that time, as sure as anything!” Andy declared, with a ring of delight in his voice.
“What makes you think so?” demanded Frank.
“Didn’t I see him turn a flop, though; and right now he’s holding his leg like fun! Guess he got a puncture in his tire, all right, Frank. After all, that Jose can shoot some, let me tell you. There, I do believe he’s gone and done it again!”
“What! hit another Indian, Andy?”
“Well, I c’n see a second fellow rolling over and over; and now he sits up and it looks like he’s examining his arm. Perhaps they’re beginning to learn that it ain’t all one sided after all, this stopping a mounted man, and trying some of the old tricks. Mebbe they’ll want to clear out now, Frank?”
“That wouldn’t be like Indian nature, from what they’ve been telling me since we came here,” Frank went on to say. “They’re all as obstinate as they make them; and the chances are, these fellows will just be more bent on shooting Jose up than ever, if, as you say, he’s already pinked a couple of their men.”
“Well, they don’t seem to be clearing out that I can notice, and that’s a fact,” Andy admitted immediately afterward. Frank could himself hear the reports of guns being discharged, and they came so thick and fast that he could almost imagine a battle was being fought between large numbers of enemies on either side. Evidently the Indians were flush with ammunition, and did not hesitate to use it plentifully. The White Father in Washington would supply them with plenty more when this was gone; or at any rate the hard cash with which to purchase the same. And they were just as prodigal in wasting cartridges as so many half-grown and irresponsible boys might have been.
For the number of shots that kept ringing out, the amount of damage done must have been remarkably small, from the accounts Andy kept giving him.
The Indians were creeping along wherever they could find protection by way of the sand dunes; and the watcher in the air declared that he believed they meant to completely surround the man at bay, when doubtless they could pour in such a hot fire that he would either have to surrender, or else be wiped out.
It was a pretty exciting time for the two young aviators while they were thus speeding toward the scene of the desert warfare. The biplane was doing its level best, and yet so impatient was Andy to arrive before the Indians had succeeded in accomplishing their terrible work that it seemed to him they were fairly crawling along.
“Oh! can’t we go faster, Frank?” he begged more than once.
“We’re doing the limit right now,” Frank would answer.
“I suppose so, Frank, but don’t you know it seems like we’d never get there at this pace,” Andy would go on to say.
“Keep cool,” was the advice of the other.
“I’m trying as hard as I can to do that, but it makes me shiver all over when I think of poor little Becky being exposed to that shooting,” said Andy, between his clenched teeth.
“Well, let’s hope Jose has been merciful enough to keep her lying flat on the ground behind the ponies. They must be dead, Andy, because with all that lead flying around no cayuse would ever consent to lie still, wounded perhaps at that. And their bodies would protect the child, even if they didn’t do the same altogether for the man. Is he still shooting?”
“I haven’t noticed a puff of smoke over the spot for some time—but there, I did get a glimpse of one just then; and Frank, believe me, he must have done it again, because I can see several of the others crawling toward one that seems to be kicking on the ground. There, they’re helping him away. Let me tell you that same Jose is no slouch when it comes to using a gun. He must have had a lot of practice in the revolutions they have every little while down in Mexico since Diaz was kicked out. I take off my hat to Jose when it comes to knocking chips off the shoulders of half-drunken reds.”
And this was the same Jose whom Andy had been saying such hard things against only a short time before; but then circumstances alter cases; and right now Jose was risking his life in defense of the little girl whom he had for some reason kidnapped from her home.
When they had been observing these things some time back they may have been as much as ten miles away from the scene of spirited action; but as the biplane was spinning along at a tremendous pace, in spite of the belief of Andy that it did not seem to be doing its best, this distance was being rapidly diminished.
Whenever the shots came now they were plainly heard, as the air seemed to be directly in the faces of the aeroplane boys while thus heading into the south.
And Andy also noticed that they kept gradually sinking just a little lower as they proceeded. Had he been able to allow himself time to think this over, he must have guessed why Frank was doing this; and that he wanted to avoid being discovered by the Indians until he could suddenly burst upon their vision in a terrifying apparition, frightening them so badly that they would only think of making a hasty flight.
Well, things were going on at such a pace now that whatever the outcome might prove to be, it would soon be over. In a couple of minutes at most the oncoming air wonder must have arrived so close to the scene of the disturbance that its presence could no longer be concealed from the sharp eyes of the Indians. Some warrior whose eyesight had not been so seriously impaired by the strong drink he had purchased from some bootlegger or trader, would while peeping around a sand dune, suddenly discover that dreadful apparition coming straight through the air, with an angry mutter that could only mean the sore displeasure of the Great Spirit, whose messenger this frightful object must be.
And when this occurred, Frank was rather inclined to believe there would be a scamper on the part of the frolicking Indians such as had not been seen on this same desert for many a day.
Luckily they could depend on the stability of their machine; and every particular part of the framework had been carefully gone over just the preceding day by the one whose hand now controlled the levers by means of which the aeroplane was guided on its way through space.
Hence, there was little likelihood of any accident happening. Frank did not allow the thought of such a thing to enter into his calculations. He placed the fullest dependence upon those staunch steel guys and the faithful little motor that never yet had failed him in time of need.
“Oh! will we ever get there?” groaned Andy.
“Keep cool, and hold on; we’re doing fine!” was Frank’s advice.
“But I think they’re getting ready to rush Jose now!” the other went on to declare, with renewed excitement.
“What makes you think that, Andy?”
“They seem to have gathered in knots in three places, and act like they meant to make a swoop down on him from all sides at once,” came the answer.
“Well, if they’ll only hold off another minute or two we’ll fix things so that their swoop’ll turn out a fizzle. Tell me when they start out on the run, Andy, because I want to turn on our siren, you know.”
“Oh! I clean forgot all about that little trick Frank!”
Frank some time before had arranged a contrivance by means of which he could make the engine sound a loud-voiced whistle that he always called a siren, because it had all the harsh, discordant notes of the big steam fog-horns to be heard in some places along the stormy coasts of our country, where the dangerous shoals or reefs make it important that vessels should be warned while still far out at sea.
This could be made to do duty at a second’s notice. Of course the boys did not often sound the deep-throated whistle or horn, because it was apt to create too much alarm in every living thing that heard it for the first time, animals as well as human beings.
But in a desperate case such as the one by which they were now confronted this hoarse-tongued signal might prove the very finest auxiliary they could hope to have in alarming the attacking Indians.
And here Andy, with his usual thoughtlessness had entirely forgotten about such a means of sending out a warning; while Frank had it in his mind all along. That little incident showed the difference between the two cousins; for with all his good qualities Andy often forgot things that it would have paid him well to remember.
Both of them were intensely interested by now, and a study of their set faces would have been worth while. Andy did not depend on the glasses any longer to tell how things were progressing, since they had come close enough for him to see with the naked eye. Of course, the fact that they were several hundred feet above the level of the sand gave considerable assistance, for they were entirely free from the little dazzling heat waves that must hug the face of the desert more and more as the day advanced, making seeing perfectly a difficult job.
The seconds clicked along, each one in the mind of the impatient Andy being registered by so many loud “pops” of the exhaust, for it was not muffled now.
“There, what did I tell you, Frank; listen to those awful yells, would you? Oh! he knocked one over then, I say! But the whole lot have started up, and bending low down are sprinting in the direction of Jose as fast as they can go. Frank, why don’t you do something before they get to him? It’s now or never, I tell you; just hear the guns going off with a rattle and a bang! Frank——”
But Andy’s words were suddenly lost in a most terrific roaring sound that broke forth, as Frank turned on the big siren whistle or horn. Across the face of the desert went the strange sound, in a wave that would annihilate space. And coming to the startled ears of the on-rushing Indians, it must have instantly riveted their attention.
Imagine their astonishment when upon raising their eyes for the first time they discovered what seemed to be a tremendous bird rushing through the air toward them and uttering that thrilling whoop, the like of which none of them had ever heard before.